Paralegal Apprenticeship

A great role for someone who wants their first step in legal training whilst gaining case management skills. This apprenticeship delivers paralegal competence in a legal practice area (which one will depend on the employer’s selection). It can lead on to further training to become a Chartered Legal Executive at the end of the apprenticeship.

Entry requirements

In order to apply you will need to:

have minimum of three Cs at A-level, or

be a paralegal or working in administration or customer service, or

have already completed an intermediate apprenticeship such as the Level 2 Apprenticeship in Legal Administration and have completed written exams at AS/A Level or have 5 GCSE grades A* to C or equivalent, including English and Maths.

Please note that employers may have additional requirements. Visit our vacancies page for current opportunities and specific entry requirements.

What will I learn?

You will be immersed in law from the start – honing your skills in a legal environment and embarking on your academic studies.

Throughout both your technical and competence studies you will receive tutoring, feedback and support from our regionally based team of assessors who are all qualified lawyers and/or legal education experts.

You will gain the CILEx Level 3 Certificate in Law and Practice as part of your apprenticeship. The first unit will be “Introduction to Law and Practice” tested by multiple-choice exam. After this you will complete your assessed assignments in client care and legal research skills. Finally, you will undertake the “synoptic end-point assessment”. Do not worry about the title! It comprises of two supervised written assessments at the end of your apprenticeship by both multiple choice questions and longer scenario-based questions. These test your legal and practice knowledge gained in the area within which you have worked.

These studies are undertaken as part of your apprenticeship and in office hours. They are delivered with lots of support and you have access to help by telephone and online. There will be webinars, some face-to-face teaching, our fabulous Student Area materials and online studies and tasks.

These are undertaken by building a portfolio of your work throughout the apprenticeship which evidences the skills you have developed and the work you have been doing.

How will I be assessed?

You will be assessed in the final months of your apprenticeship to ensure that you have met all standards. CILEX Law School will carry out a final assessment which will test all the requirements of the apprenticeship standard and lead to a graded result. There will be two parts to the assessment – the portfolio and scenarios.

The portfolio: evidence gathered during the apprenticeship to demonstrate knowledge and competence gained will be compiled and signed off in the final four months of the apprenticeship.

Scenarios: you will sit two 1.5-hour contextualised scenario assessments under supervision. The first scenario will test your problem solving through a series of multiple-choice questions (MCQs). The questions will test knowledge of the English Legal System, and the chosen area of law and practice. The second scenario will test your drafting skills. The test will include MCQs, short-answer questions and drafting exercises. The scenarios will include sufficient coverage (75%) of the relevant CILEx law and practice unit specifications to obtain exemption from the corresponding CILEx units.

To prepare for the knowledge element of the end-point assessment, you will do open-book study exercises during the course of the programme, with marking and feedback provided by our tutors.

On the competence element, our delivery team will assess the development of competence throughout the programme, and will identify relevant evidence for inclusion in the synoptic end-point portfolio.

Getting started

As with any job, the first step in obtaining an apprenticeship is to apply for an available role. Alternatively, you can approach your chosen organisation, or current employer, and ask whether they might be interested in taking you on as an apprentice. Please direct them to CILEx Law School for further information or before starting as they’ll need to complete some administrative formalities.